Sunday, October 26, 2008

Oh Yeah, There was This Flare

I think this warrants a separate mention. The big story coming out of overtime, other than Jeff Carter's deflection going into the net, was that someone from the crowd threw a flare/smokebomb onto the rink after Martin Brodeur made a ridiculous save on Mike Knuble in overtime. Incidentally, this occurred before the Flyers scored their game-winner (and I do mean incidentally, there is no reason to believe the Devils lost because of it) The flare landed a few yards in front of the Devils' bench and all the players moved into the locker room hallway to get away from the smoke and the smell. Nearby fans covered up their faces; and Flyers defenseman Ossi Vaananen bravely picked up the flare to move it towards the other end of the rink.

Someone on YouTube had the clip of this, but they don't have it anymore; so unfortunately I can't point those of you who didn't see it on TV in the direction of what it looked like. Imagine a flare on the ice with a whole lot of yellowish smoke coming out of it. (UPDATE: Leave it to me to not search hard enough: Puck Daddy has it.Here's the direct link of what the viewers saw on TV.)

This is clearly an inexcusable act and I should certainly hope no one gets the idea to do this at any other hockey game. I know some supportersgroupsin soccer do this, but it's really stupid and dangerous be it in a crowd full of people or onto the actual field/rink of play. Hopefully we learn who actually committed the act as opposed to relying on conjecture and when we do learn it, Gulitti/Chere/et al will report it as such.

Saw this on On the Fly final. Stupid act and like you said John, stuff like that happens over in Europe during soccer games. Actions are taken though and usually it can go as far as the game being stopped and the hosting team being awarded with a loss. I hope hockey fans will never get as stupid as soccer fans!